10 Tactics at AIDS 2010
Every year around 20 000 of the most influential advocates, policy-makers and organisations working in the field of HIV/AIDS and committed to ending the pandemic gather for the International AIDS conference. This year's event took place in Vienna, Austria, between 18 - 23 July and was focused on maintaining HIV/AIDS as a key global, and human rights issue and pushing for the expansion of HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support. Tactical Tech took part in some of the activities in the Global Village, the participatory space of the conference designed for exhibitions, workshops and networking for delegates and non-delegates alike.
Oswalda Rada from MSCAVCO, a collective of 82 NGOs working on HIV/AIDS in Colombia, and Dirk Slater from Tactical Tech screened 10 tactics for turning information into action on the third day of the conference. Oswaldo has his own connection with the 10 Tactics project as he attended the Info-Activism Camp, held by Tactical Tech in India 2009, where most of the stories in the film were collected. Another camper present was Aliya Rakhmetova, the coordinator of the Eastern European Sex Worker Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN).
The discussion after the film centered on the challenges of implementing the featured tactics and also understanding your audience and their access (or lack of access) to digital tools. Oswaldo said that "the screening was interesting for the people and many of them spoke about the needs of their organisations relating to communications and advocacy."
Along with the screening Dirk held three workshop training sessions utilising the 10 Tactics cards. The three sessions were: Using mobiles in your campaign (tactics 8 and 9); Mobilising and engaging individuals in your campaign (tactics 1, 2, 4 and 6) and; Getting creative with your campaign's information (tactics 3, 5, 7 and 10). Tactical Tech was invited by the World AIDS Campaign to hold sessions of 10 Tactics in their booth, which was named 'Positive Community in Action' and was designed to highlight examples of innovative campaigning techniques, at the Global Village.
Image: The Human Rights March and Rally at the International AIDS Conference. Photo taken by Dirk Slater.
